Posted: Dec 10, 2007 08:14 pm EST
(ThePoles.com) “We, nor much equipment, are not built to operate down here under such conditions and strains of effort, and things unfortunately do fail,” writes Adrian. Two men have been evacuated unfortunately and two Norwegian women started out on a new route after a successful Vinson climb.

Unsupported teams

Sub-zero expedition - Difficult decision
Dec 09, 2007 82.88608S,79.90470W

On 5 Dec., Day 8 of the expedition, Jason and Todd had to make a difficult decision. “The team had attempted over the last several days to work through the lower body injuries Jason has suffered, but these injuries only seem to be worsening. Due to the pace they were trying to maintain in an effort to achieve the fastest possible trek to the South Pole, they both knew there would be no days of rest and healing ahead of them. The two regrettably decided it would be best for Todd to continue on alone.” Jason was airlifted by plane and Todd continued on his own.

Alone

Todd’s first two days alone were white-out days with low visibility. Although the terrain felt like a moonscape where he couldn’t see the next crater coming, and like picking his way through an ice junk yard, he still skied 18.7 nm and 20.8 nm. He also paid tribute to the current solo, unsupported world record holder, Hannah McKeand, for the job she had done.

On day 10, 8 Dec., Todd skied another 20+ mile day on a clear, windy, cold, uphill day. Every day Todd skis “roughly 10.5 hours. The final quarter of an hour as he looks around for a decent place to set up camp. Throughout the day, he may stop every hour and a half or so for five minutes to take a breather and consume a bit of water and food.” On his audio dispatch he tells about his base layer that fell from the washing line onto the tent floor during the night and was frozen in the morning. “Slipping into that was quite fun”.

Blizzard
Day 11, 9 Dec. Todd skied 7 nm and “a blizzard and whiteout conditions have forced Todd to safely wait things out inside his tent.”

ANI South Pole Quest expedition - Halfway
Sun 9 Dec 07 85.7490S,081.081.1283W, Day 28. Distances: Today 16.1 nm (30km); Total 345 nm (642km); To go 255 nm (474km). Cloudy, moderate winds, -15C

On 6 Dec., Day 25, Devon McDiarmid, Hans Foss, Adrian Hayes, Evelyn Binsack and Max Chaya reached halfway, 85°S. “A perfect day to reach the half way point - sunny, not too cold (-12C), no wind at all and good terrain. We subsequently reached 85 degrees south with a record mileage/day so far achieved of a big 17 nautical miles. We even had the unique chance to have our team degree dinner outside! Its naturally a huge psychological boost reaching this point - and this expedition is a lot about mental disciplines and toughness,” reports Adrian.

Broken boot

Day 26, 7 Dec., “No sooner do I write (yesterday's dispatch) about how, despite doing very well so far, things could be seriously disrupted by malfunctions to bodies or equipment, than my boots suffer the equivalent of a cardiac arrest," Adrian reported. "The steel toe pin that holds your boot to the ski bindings/skis - sheared off completely this morning. Tonight, myself and Devon carried out major surgery to attempt an alternative way off holding the boots to the skis, but it’s a big blow. I'm a strong walker, but skis are faster and expend significantly less energy than your two feet.” Skied 14.2 nm.

Day 27, 8 Dec., Adrian reports, “My broken boot saga continued all day today. “Problem solving/improvisation is a key ingredient for success in any polar expedition. We, nor much equipment, are not built to operate down here under such conditions and strains of effort, and things unfortunately do fail. Finding a solution with limited resources is all part of the game, and, in a strange way, is hugely satisfying.”

Day 29. “With only one major hold up, we thus managed a great 16.1 nautical miles today, which in tough conditions of soft snow was excellent. We also bid farewell to the Theil Mountains, which have been shadowing us to our west the past few days.”

Hvitserk expedition
8 Dec., Day 27: 84°37,967 S / 080°23,646 W - 25,6 km

New routes/variations

Interchange Shackleton Ronne Ice Shelf new route - Crevasses continue

Doug Stoup, Richard Dunwoody and James Fox have been eight days on the ice and have winded their way through crevasse fields. Richard reports on 8 Dec. ”On Wednesday sastrugi gave way to larger sastrugi, which suddenly gave way to huge boulders of snow, surrounded by massive craters, crevasses were everywhere.”

Six hours zig-zagging

“We spend six hours that afternoon zig-zagging our way through it. Stepping, on our skis, over tens of crevasses and hauling our sleds up and over banks of snow and at times needing the three of us just to pull the one sled. James’ sled suddenly ended up in a meter and a half crevasse in front of me. It was a very, very stressful afternoon. In the end we have camped that evening, still in the sick of it.”

Doug suddenly disappeared

“Worse was to happen the next morning still trying to find another route out of this white hell. Doug suddenly disappeared up to his armpits. Fortunately he was able to through himself to the side and escaped it. The ice there is several hundreds meters thick. That, potentially, could have been the length of his fall. I think in the end we realised how lucky we were to come through in one piece. I certainly don’t want to ever experience anything like that again. A huge thanks to Doug for getting us through it.”

Day 9, 9 Dec., James reports more crevasses, rough terrain and hills, but they still managed 18.6 km. They are pulling 9-10 h/day.

Norwegian women new route, Vinson to South Pole

Ine-Lill Gabrielsen (expedition leader) and Rita Glenne: After summiting the highest mountain on Antarctica, Vinson (4 897 m), successfully “Rita and Ine-Lill have now left the Old Vinson Base Camp (5 December) and are currently doing the first leg of their journey to the South Pole.

After descending from High Camp, they went on to the old base camp (OVBC) with no delays although they had considered to rest for a day. "We can feel the effect of lower altitude," Ine-Lill reported from OVBC. They are now into the first serious test of pulling sledges with 85 kg loads each, and expect to be tired. But they are also very excited about their surroundings, and report fantastic weather conditions. "We have had almost no wind, and this translates into fairly warm temperatures, Rita said as they were about to start skiing at noon local time.”

On 9 Dec. they report skiing 13.3 km in white-out conditions.

Supported teams

John Huston (Northwind guide), Cameron Hudson and Sumiyo Tsuzuki - Farewell
8 December, 07 81.1623S,81.9866W, 11.4 nm in 7 hours, -14C, no wind.

Cameron reports: “Quite an eventful couple of days! On Friday evening during a team meeting, Peter (70 year old Peter Blaikie) announced that he no longer wished to continue with the expedition. After what had clearly been a tough decision he explained his reasons which the rest of us respected and understood entirely. It is difficult to loose such a valuable team member at this stage, but the show will now continue with just myself, Sumiyo and John.”

South African’s – Alex Harris and Sibusiso Vilane

Alex reporting: “10 December 2007 day 26. passed 83 degrees. another milestone. 7 more to go. snowed the whole day. did 19km.”

Irish Beyond Endurance crossing: Seeing Theils
Date: 7/12/07, Position: S84.8364, W086.9121, Temperature: -19c to -29c wind chill. Weather: Clear skies, good visibility. Distance today: 27km

On 6 Dec, Day 25, Pat, Clare, Sean and Jonathon saw their halfway point, the Theil Mountains. “The excitement of seeing them was amazing for all the team. We were still 125km or 5 days skiing away. For the last 24 days our only point of reference was a way point there. In every direction it was just a desert landscape. Now with a sense of relief we know were on course to the Pole.”

On Day 26 they had a whiteout, “it is impossible to see the terrain, so we were skiing blind. We had to take it easy, as it is simple to fall in these conditions and a turned ankle would be a disaster.” Day 27 the team was too tired to write and looked forward to their rest day at Theils.

ANI Messner Route – supported, with guide Eric Phillips
9 Dec, 07 83.077S 067.205W

Eric Philips, Alison Levine, Merete Gjertsen, Bernice Noteboom and George Szwender. Bernice reports: “No matter how much you think you understand what you are going to get yourself into, the reality on expeditions like these is always different, like the realization of the hard work, the sustained cold and wind and the weight of your sledge.”

“Skiing 1.5 hours, take a break for 15 minutes and push all the way till 5 pm, 8 hours a day. Navigating on nothing keeps your mind occupied “

A 50 km setback

“Last night when Eric plotted the route, he discovered that we are skiing 916 km instead of 865km. Not so good for the moral when you still have over 800km to do instead of over 700km. Despite the struggle, cold (much colder today) and the wind, we still logged 20 km today!”

Last Degree teams: Kevin Dempsy – last degree

The team: Tim Hewette - ALE guide & Alaskan, Kevin Dempsy – Irish, Lance Ranger - UK born but lives in Switzerland, Stefan Anders - Germany, Armund Mussey - New York,

The high Antarctic plateau (nearly 3000 m) is much colder that nearer to the coast. Kevin reports –34°C with bright sun, little cloud. “We marched & hauled for 8 hrs today & covered a respectable 15kms. It is indeed a very though undertaking this Last Degree & I would certainly rank each day a tough as any summitday on a 6,000mt peak or certainly as tough as summit day on Vinson. But we have to do 10 'summit' days'.”

Links to Antarctic teams’ websites:

Crossings
Peter Valusiak's Solo crossing (postponed to 2008)
Irish Beyond Endurance - and Beyond the Pole

Unsupported to the Pole
Sub-Zero Expedition- Jason De Carteret and Todd Carmichael
Evelyn Binsack's bike ride from Switzerland
Adrian Hayes third pole
Max Chaya's second pole
Hans Foss
Hvitserk expedition
Sibu and Alex

Unsupported new routes/Vinson
Norwegian women for Vinson and South Pole via new route
Doug Stoup, James Fox and Richard Dunwoody new route from the Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelf.
Stangl Vinson/ski return PH
Tomsky Vinson/ski return PH

Supported SP
Eric Philips partial repetition of Messner/Fuchs from Ronne Ice shelf. Dutch Bernice Notenboom is among clients.
Bernice's website
John Huston & Northwind, Sumiyo Tsuzuki, Peter Blaikie (70 y), Cameron and John
Cameron Hudson and John Huston for glaucoma website

Climbing
Pou brothers

Last degree
Kevin Dempsey, last degree

Scientific
Teachers on ice
American-Norwegian expedition in the East Antarctic

Sailing
Euronav Belgica: Dixie Dansercoer's retrace of Adrien de Gerlache
SP solo, speed record holder Hannah McKeand roaming the Southern Ocean with David Pryce
All-star explorer Fedor Konyukhov benchmark record attempt on Antarctica Cup Race track in Southern Ocean.

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